This is the longest we have ever planned for a zero…almost 4 years to get here.
We met John and Jenny when we hiked the Wonderland Trail in 2016. They were the first people we had openly talked about our plans to quit our jobs in our premium earning years and go hiking. To our families dismay, instead of telling us we were crazy, they encouraged us to follow our plans. So far, I haven’t regretted doing so. I can’t speak to Bunny’s feeling, especially when she lays down in the tent and moans after a long, hard day of hiking. She may be a killer Bunny, but she is an older killer Bunny and getting more so every day.
John and I have similar backgrounds. He was in Boy Scouts, got his Eagle Scout, worked on camp staff for 10 years, was in OA, and went to Philmont. He credits scouting with giving him his love of nature and wanderlust. Once he got done with schooling, he started hitchhiking and traveling the world. He spent a year in Australia paddling the coast and climbing whenever he could. He is not a one trick pony like Bunny and me. He hikes, kayaks, rock climbs, skis, snow shoes, bikes, and anything else that gets him outdoors. He eventually ended up in Alaska where he found a job working for REI that gave him the flexibility to leave for trips whenever he wanted. He became a master craftsman and remodeled houses on the side. He can tackle anything.
Jenny was an East Coast girl growing up in Vermont, Washington DC area, and Cape Cod. She developed a love of the outdoors which drew her to the west coast (Seattle) where she worked for REI for a while. She enjoyed all the recreational activities WA offered. Eventually, her and her fiancé decided to accept an REI transfer and move to Alaska. On one of his climbing expeditions, after successfully summitting, he was skiing down the mountain. An avalanche occurred and took his life. This was just two weeks before they were to be married.
Jenny took the opportunity to go back to school to get an advanced degree in biology and outdoor sciences (I don’t remember all the degrees she has). With her degree, she went to work for the a National Park Service. Jenny has had some bad events along the way and another one happened to her while working for the NPS. She was in a helicopter wreck, but no one died, fortunately. She did hurt her back and no longer likes to fly. Jenny decided she wanted a bit more peace in her life, so she took a librarian position with the state of Alaska. This didn’t end her love of outdoors. She was a musher, often owning as many as 15 dogs which she spent countless hours training.
John and Jenny knew each other for 9 years before they got married. That marriage was almost 30 years ago. They decided to move down to Sisters, OR when they retired, so they could have some warmer summers. They still own property up in Alaska which they rent. John and Jenny are about 10 years older than Bunny and me. They are ACTIVE!
Jenny now has one dog, Lexi, who is amazing. Lexi is a natural learner as Jenny discovered, but that doesn’t mean they don’t spend hundreds of hours working together. Lexi is an agility champion, a certified trick dog, therapy dog, and an amazing friend. Jenny, although claiming to be slowing down and not able to do as much, takes Lexi for a 5-10 mile bike ride/run every morning before having breakfast. Instead of long backpacking expeditions, they now settle for day hikes, which there are plenty of opportunity for here in Sisters.
If there’s something outside, John and Jenny are up for it. They spent 2 months canoeing the Northwest Territories in Canada paddling all the way up to the arctic circle. John climbed in the Brooks Range. They’ve hiked the GR20 on Corsica (which we wanted to do in 2017 but didn’t have the time). They have lived and are living the life Bunny and I dream of.
We hiked with John and Jenny for 4 days on the Wonderland Trail. If it wasn’t for them guiding us, we wouldn’t have made it across the snow fields on the side of Mt Rainier. We had a 13 day itinerary and theirs was only 12, but they kept tabs on us the rest of the trip by sending greetings through hikers going in the opposite direction.
We did manage to see them on a chance encounter outside of Mt Rainier NP as we were hiking in WA last year. We had planned to visit them when we came through OR. We were just a few days away when my mother died and took us off the trail. We kept in touch all winter and made plans for getting in a visit this year.
Covid did effect our plans a bit. We knew we’d have anywhere from 3-5 of us when we arrived. We maintained strict isolation while on the trail to verify that we were Covid free when we arrived in Sisters. John and Jenny graciously opened up their house to us for two nights, chauffeured us around for resupply and gear, cooked wonderful meals for us, and let us do laundry and shower. They were so kind, they didn’t make us shower first thing and gave us drinks by their beautiful water pond out back.
All in all, we had a fantastic time with John, Jenny, and Lexi. They were such fantastic hosts, we hated to leave, but we got an intro to the Sisters/Bend area and really would like to see more of it. This area has moved onto the list of possibilities for us to settle in when we get done hiking. One of the things we’re doing while hiking is trying to decide where we want to die (or live the rest of our lives as Bunny prefers to state…I’m more pragmatic). We can’t wait to come back to visit again when Covid finally gets contained. That might be a while since the federal government has basically given up.
EFG